- it never really acts as a deterrent
- often the person on death row is basically in solitary confinement. So even if they are released, they are released crazy
- the penalty is quite final. there is no appealing afterwards
- it is mostly about revenge
- ripe with abuse
Currently the rate is roughly for every 10 guilty people who are executed, 1 innocent person is executed.
I don't care how you cut that statistic, it's too much.
Parent covers this essentially in this point:
"the penalty is quite final. there is no appealing afterwards"
The reason we have an appeal process is because an initial sentence can be wrong or inappropriate.
http://deathpenaltycurriculum.org/student/c/about/arguments/...
Since 1973, at least 121 people have been released from death row after evidence of their innocence emerged. During the same period of time, over 982 people have been executed. Thus, for every eight people executed, we have found one person on death row who never should have been convicted.